Letter: Response to Lunetta

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Being an avowed socialist myself, I usually disagree with Steve Lunetta’s opinions. But never more so than those he espoused in his June 25 column, “Economy’s about to go over a cliff.”

Naturally, Lunetta starts by castigating President Obama for his “socialist policies” such as the Affordable Health Care for America Act and the stimulus package Congress passed during his first year in office.

By most projections, the health care law will lower overall costs, not increase them, over time. And the stimulus program undoubtedly kept the economy from “going over the cliff” that he is concerned about. The stimulus was clearly too small; Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said it needed to be twice as big to jump start the economy. But it certainly did help keep things from getting much worse.

Lunetta then decries Social Security. Steve, go ask any senior citizen if they’d like their benefits rescinded and see how far you get with that one.

Food stamps go under Lunetta’s knife next: According to him, people should be ashamed to use them since they are being paid for by hard-working Americans who are “three months behind in their mortgage payments” and “can’t pay for their kids’ braces.”

Let’s see ... chances are, if they are in that situation it’s because they lost their own jobs and are themselves depending on food stamps and unemployment insurance, don’t you think?

Finally, Lunetta excoriated the countries of Europe for their socialistic ways (a favorite topic of the right for generations).

Yet consider this fact: the most socialistic countries of Europe are generally considered to be the Scandinavian ones, and they seem to be doing pretty darn well compared to their southern neighbors.

Have you heard much about the socialists in Norway or Sweden suffering like Greece and Spain are?